This article considers the findings of three different research studies on one juvenile justice intervention. In 2015, Juvenile Justice New South Wales received three different research findings on the same programme, the Intensive Supervision Program (ISP). The Bureau of Crime Statistics Research (BOCSAR) provided a report on the reoffending rates of those young people who underwent the programme. A team of researchers from Western Sydney University produced a report in two parts: first, a qualitative study that told the story of the young people’s path towards desistance, and second, a related economic analysis plotting the possible economic benefits to society of this programme producing desistance in participants. It is a rare situation to have three such different research reports on the same programme so this article will consider the wider implications of this and how to best judge whether a criminal justice intervention is successful and worth pursuing.
BaglovioMTJackowskiKGreenwaldMAWolffKT (2014) Comparison of multisystemic therapy and functional family therapy effectiveness: A multiyear statewide propensity score matching analysis of juvenile offenders. Criminal Justice and Behaviour41(9): 1033–1056.
2.
BorduinCMMannBJConeLTHenggelerSWFucciBRBlaskeDMWilliamsRA (1995) Multi-systemic treatment of serious juvenile offenders: Long-term prevention of criminality and violence. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology63: 569–578.
3.
BrownD (2013) Justice reinvestment: The circuit breaker?Insight8: 36–38.
4.
BrownDCunneenCSchwartzMStubbsJYoungC (2016) Justice Reinvestment: Winding Back Imprisonment. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
5.
BrownDSchwartzMBoseleyL (2012) The promise of justice reinvestment. Alternative Law Journal37(2): 96–102.
6.
CarlssonCSarneckiJ (2016) An Introduction to Life-Course Criminology. London: SAGE.
7.
CohenS (1985) Visions of Social Control: Crime, Punishment and Classification. Oxford: Polity Press.
8.
CunneenCBaldryEBrownDSchwartzMSteelABrownM (2013) Penal Culture and Hyperincarceration: The Revival of the Prison. Abingdon: Routledge.
9.
FarrallSHunterBSharpeGCalverleyA (2014) Criminal Careers in Transition: The Social Context of Desistance from Crime. Oxford: Clarendon Studies in Crime, Oxford University Press.
10.
FarrallSHunterBSharpeGCalverleyA (2015) Criminal Careers in Transition: The Social Context of Desistance from Crime. Oxford: Clarendon Studies in Crime, Oxford University Press.
11.
FeeleyMSimonJ (1992) The new penology: Notes on the emerging strategy of corrections and its implications. Criminology30(4): 449–474.
GarlandD (2001) The Culture of Crime Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
14.
HalseyMJ (2016) In search of desistance: Notes from an Australian study. In: Joanna ShaplandJFarrallSBottomsA (eds) Global Perspectives on Desistance: Reviewing What We Know and Looking to the Future. New York: Routledge, 204–221.
15.
HealyD (2010) The Dynamics of Desistance. Cullompton: Willan Publishing.
16.
HenggelerSWSchoenwaldSKBorduinCMRowlandMDCunninghamPB (2009) Multisystemic Therapy for Antisocial Behaviour in Children and Adolescents, 2nd Edition.New York: Guilford.
17.
Juvenile Justice New South Wales (2017) Year in Review 2015 – 2016. Sydney: New South Wales Government.
18.
LeschiedAWCunninghamA (2002) Seeking Effective Interventions for Young Offenders: Interim Results of a Four Year Randomized Study of Multisystemic Therapy in Ontario, Canada. London, ON. Canada: Centre for Children and Families in the Justice System.
19.
LiptonDMartinsonRWilksJ (1975) The Effectiveness of Correctional Treatment: A Survey of Treatment Valuation Studies. New York: Praeger.
20.
LittellJCampbellMGreenSToewsB (2005) Multisystemic therapy for social, emotional, and behavioural problems in youth aged 10–17. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews4: CD004797.
21.
MassogliaMUggenC (2010) Settling down and aging out: Toward an interactionist theory of desistance and the transition to adulthood. American Journal of Sociology116(2): 543–582.
22.
McAraLMcVieS (2011) Youth justice. In: FarrallSHoughMMarunaSSparksR (eds) Escape Routes: Contemporary Perspectives on Life after Punishment. Abingdon: Routledge, 81–106.
MacdonaldRWebsterCShildrickTSimpsonM (2011) Paths of exclusion, inclusion and desistance: Understanding marginalised young people’s criminal careers. In: FarrallSHoughMMarunaSSparksR (eds) Escape Routes: Contemporary Perspectives on Life after Punishment. Abingdon: Routledge, 134–157.
25.
McNeillF (2006) A desistance paradigm for offender management. Criminology and Criminal Justice6(1): 39–62.
26.
McNeillFWeaverB (2010) Changing Lives? Desistance Research and Offender Management. Glasgow: Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, Glasgow School of Social Work.
27.
McNeillFBatchelorSBurnettRKnoxJ (2005) 21st Century Social Work: Reducing Re-Offending: Key Practice Skills. Glasgow: Social Work Inspection Agency.
28.
MairGBurkeL (2012) Redemption, Rehabilitation and Risk Management. Abingdon: Routledge.
29.
MarunaS (2006) Desistance from crime. In: McLaughlinEMuncieJ (eds) The SAGE Dictionary of Criminology, 2nd Edition, 120–123London: SAGE.
30.
MatzaD (1964) Delinquency and Drift. Washington, DC: Transaction.
31.
MooreTMcArthurMSaundersV (2013) Young people talk about transitioning from youth detention to the community: Making good. Australian Social Work66(3): 328–343.
32.
PoyntonSMenendezP (2015) The Impact of the NSW Intensive Supervision Program on Recidivism. Crime and Justice Bulletin. Sydney, NSW, Australia: NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.
33.
RocqueM (2014) The lost concept: The (re) emerging link between maturation and desistance from crime. Criminology and Criminal Justice15: 340–360.
34.
RotmanE (1986) Do criminal offenders have a constitutional right to rehabilitation?Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology77(4): 1023–1068.
35.
RudesDViglioneJTaxmanF (2014) Professional ideologies in United States probation and parole. In: DurnescuIMcNeillF (eds) Understanding Penal Practice. London and New York: Routledge, 11–29.
36.
SawyerAMBorduinCM (2011) Effects of multisystemic therapy through midlife: A 21.9-year follow-up to a randomized clinical trial with serious and violent juvenile offenders. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology79(5): 643–652.
37.
SchaefferCBorduinC (2005) Long-term follow up to a randomised clinical trial of multisystemic therapy with serious and violent young offenders. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology73(3): 445–453.
38.
StoutB (2016) Community Justice in Australia. Sydney, NSW, Australia: Allen and Unwin.
39.
StoutBSchranerIDalbyH (2015) Research into the JJ NSW Intensive Supervision Program. Sydney, NSW, Australia: Juvenile Justice New South Wales.
40.
TigheAPistrangNCasdagliLBaruchGButlerS (2012) Multi-systemic therapy for young offenders: Families’ experiences of therapeutic processes and outcomes. Journal of Family Psychology26(2): 187–197.
41.
TrotterC (2014) Effective Supervision in youth justice: A comparison of data sources. In: DurnescuIMcNeillF (eds) Understanding Penal Practice. London and New York: Routledge, 223–235.
42.
TrotterCBaidawiSEvansP (2015) Good practice in community-based supervision of aboriginal young offenders. Australian Social Work681: 5–18.
43.
WardTMarunaS (2007) Rehabilitation. New York: Routledge.
44.
WeaverB (2011) Co-producing community justice: The transformative potential of personalisation for penal sanctions. British Journal of Social Work41: 1038–1057.
45.
WeaverB (2012) The relational context of desistance: Some implications and opportunities for social policy. Social Policy and Administration46(4): 395–412.
46.
WeaverB (2014) Co-producing desistance. In: DurnescuIMcNeillF (eds) Understanding Penal Practice. London and New York: Routledge, 193–205.
